Penn Dems hosts state rep. Rick Krajewski to discuss priorities ahead of midterm elections

The Penn Democrats hosted 2013 Engineering graduate and Pennsylvania state Rep. Rick Krajewski (D-188) at a Wednesday interest meeting.

Krajewski — whose district includes Penn's campus and parts of University City — spoke to around 30 Penn Dems members at the event, which took place at Huntsman Hall. At the Jan. 21 meeting, he discussed his work addressing juvenile incarceration, the Pennsylvania tax system, and the upcoming Democratic primary election.

Krajewski spoke about a possible Democratic trifecta in 2026 — through majorities in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and State Senate, along with a Democratic Governor.

He cautioned that even with the trifecta, key voter issues such as SEPTA funding cuts may remain unresolved. According to Krajewski, public transit in Harrisburg has been “portrayed as blue democratic cities asking the Senate to give them a handout.”

“That’s wrong, because there’s actually a lot of rural transit authorities and smaller bus lines,” Krajewski explained. "There’s even some rail that goes across the state that also doesn’t have funding.”

When asked about his healthcare priorities, Krajewski said he supports the Medicare for All Act and pointed to tax reform as a potential solution for anticipated federal funding cuts.

Krajewski specifically emphasized the importance of enforcing Pennsylvania’s Uniformity Clause, which mandates uniform taxation across constituents of the same class.

“Basically, you have corporations that do business in Pennsylvania but claim their headquarters are in Delaware,” Krajewski said. “They should be paying Pennsylvania taxes, and you lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenue because of this.”

Krajewski is a member of the Pennsylvania House Committee on Children and Youth and passed a series of bills protecting the rights of incarcerated juveniles and the children of incarcerated parents. At the meeting, he expressed his reservations about the incarceration system and emphasized the importance of getting “to the root of the problem.”

“Everything that’s wrong with our society gets swept into the carceral system and others that are punitive because we’re not willing to deal with the root causes,” he added. “The best thing we can do is think about what causes young people to get into the system and address those."

Krajewski also noted the influence his time at Penn had on his interest in politics — including motivating him to pivot from a career in technology to advocating for education reform.

“I loved my time at Penn, I love the education it gave me,” he said. “I don’t think you should have to go to Penn to be able to get that level of education. I think every school should be like Penn, whether it’s in West Philadelphia, North Philly, New York City, wherever.”

Krajewski last visited Penn in January 2025 when he spoke at a rally advocating for Research Associates and Postdocs United at Penn, a union of graduate workers, to form.

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